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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The client is a large hospital lab, recently given responsibility for Phlebotomy. Their problem is that the draw stations not only are not on the LIS, the draw stations are not computerized at all.

Their problem is compounded by the fact that their LIS is not off-the-shelf but is rather long in the tooth.

Worse, the lab is entirely focused on inpatient specimens: their processes and procedures all assume an electronic order in the LIS followed by a tube labelled with an LIS collection label.

All we can count on at the draw stations is a secure network connection.

We bridge that gap in under two months:

custom Linux-based thin clients to provide

dependable known web browser

barcode label printing and report printing

a web app to

greet the patient, establishing a start for wait time

identify the patient using an up-to-date patient index

support finding and using existing electronic orders (clinics)

support turning a paper order into an electronic order

UI of assays

interface to LIS to place order as if from the HIS

print a collection label compatible with the legacy LIS

provide history of activity by draw station or across draw stations

support drop-offs

support clinical trials

support ordering synonyms to match community ordering habits

We roll out our app to their completely computer illiterate user base, many of whom have never used a mouse.

We provide management metrics for wait times and patient visits and a link to the Lab Man database so that the phlebotomists have up-to-date collection instructions. (More on that original Lab Man here.)